Hello all,In my ASUS motherboard (coming tomorrow), there are two settings to overclock. One is Auto (where you enter a target frequency and the board will adjust the settings to reach it) or Manual, where you can set the RAM Latency (mine is 4-4-4-12), FSB, Vcore, RAM Voltage, and all those other advanced options. Which option should I use?I have also been debating on SP2. I saw in the great benchmark thread that it does offer a performance boost, but I have heard negative reviews on it CTDing, freezing, and all those things.Thanks and kind regards,BoeingGuy

You need to set your CPU overclock manually and your RAM timings manually. The rest of your BIOS setings you may be able to get by in auto.It all depends on hard you are going to push your overclock.You most definitely want to install SP2. The majority of users bashing SP2 have problems elsewhere that are conflicting with SP2.

Thank you sargeski,Yes I want to initially go to 3.0 GHz, leave it like that for a while, then push higher.Thanks for the SP2 input. I'm not putting in anything 3rd-party into FSX for a long time, so I shouldn't have problems based on your info.Thanks again!Regards,BoeingGuy

I have the P5K and Otto (Auto) is doing a fine job. Set the FSB to 400 (or less) and bump the CPU volts up by by 0.1v (with the Asus boards, verify Vcore with CPUZ). That's it. The board will take care of the rest. There's absolutely no need to mess with ram timings or volts. The performance difference will take scientific instruments to measure and you're potentially messing with stability. DDR2-800 ram will run with a 400mhz FSB just fine . . . actually, that's what the "-800" part means.Asus is doing a good job these days. The Gigibytes are sensitive to certain FSB settings. I haven't found a 'hole' in the Asus so far. Just set FSB and Vcore, Prime for an hour and you're done. Let Otto handle it.With a multi-core, SP2 is a must have.

Thanks Sam, now I can breathe easier knowing I can overclock safer.Regards,BoeingGuy

Sargeski,Thanks for the heads up on the Hanns=g 28" monitor.So far I'm liking it.No drivers for XP tho.So I just fired it up and it looks great.I don't know why there was a brightness complaint.It looks good to me.Thanks,Ron

i had a black hole during my overclock (e6850) between the 1600-1680 fsb setting on my fsb on my p5ne-sli , no boot, no nuthin, then i read about some black holes, and kept on going, now I'm up to 4ghz, cold room, running below 65 celcius. (i do have a big fan and thermalright heatsinkmike